Not your father's Chevrolet

Submitted by Dave Brauer-Rieke on Thu, 06/16/2011 - 7:44pm

It is fascinating to see how a new communitiy takes shape. A few curious folks trickle in (like me.) It's different. I'm not sure I totally get it. I try a few things. Then I go away.

Now people are starting to come back again. A few more try starting a group, or responding to one that is already going. "I see . . . the comments and discussions are listed under the group photo and description.

On thing I've asked our Community Organizer about is what good "friending" somebody is. This really isn't the same as FB. And the answer? Well, on FB everything revolves around friending people. Here it's about joining groups and taking part together. It's about "us" - not so much just me!

Promote content

Not Facebook, not a church website

Submitted by Gary Schulstad on Thu, 06/16/2011 - 8:20pm.

I initially did not see the point in friending. Now I see that My Friends under My Stuff shows Recent Activity without havng to find people again. As the Community Organizer pointed out, it allows you to explore and take part in Soul Cafe with people together.

Your reference to Facebook touched on questions I am going to see unfolding. Creator has Facebook Groups. Most churches have websites. How will the new possiblities of this online fit into the jigsaw puzzle of existing web presence? Can events, for example, automatically be imported from a church website that has the information or can Soul Cafe have a capability to export out event information? Or, perhaps, there may need to be a general agreement reached as to where this information will be kept?

It doesn't need to be answered immediately but it will play a part in how this is shaped and what gets added.

You're good!

Submitted by Dave Brauer-Rieke on Thu, 06/16/2011 - 8:45pm.

You're good, Gary - and right on. I forgot. I was told that "friending" allows you to track the activity of a friend, as in seeing what they were saying in groups, when the updated blogs, etc. This will be a real plus as the community grows. The question is always how do you find what you want? Soul Cafe is designed to make that easy. One way is tracking friend's writing through this function.

Your other questions are all good and in process. There are so many things that could be done, but are they helpful? (And how much would the cost be to build them into the system? SC is pretty awesome as is when you come to think of it!! Still, there will be more tweaks and stuff coming.) The dance between FB, webpages and SC is definitely still to be lived into. Input welcome!! One thing about FB groups is that when they take off, they become unweildy - reponses and important information can get lost in long threads. This rarely happens in congregational FB groups because they have too few people, but it happens all the time on one's main page. There is no topical search function in FB. You can only search for people. SC will prove itself to be SOoooo massively superior here!